Lehman takes honours with opening 62

U.S. Ryder Cup captain Tom Lehman fired a 10-under-par 62 to grab the opening round lead at the Buick Invitational on Thursday, moving him closer to his goal of playing on the team he will lead against Europe.

Lehman shot to the top of the leaderboard with a sizzling back nine on the Torrey Pines North course, closing with six consecutive birdies to give him a one shot advantage over Dean Wilson, who carded a bogey free nine-under 63.

"I got in a nice rhythm there and before I knew it, I looked and I had birdied nine of the last 12 coming in," Lehman said.

"I've set my goal to make the (2006 Ryder Cup) team. I would like to play and captain the team."

Arron Oberholser sits one shot further adrift at eight-under, followed by a group of three players at seven-under that includes South Africa's Ernie Els.

Coming off a win at last week's Sony Open, Vijay Singh stumbled through his front nine but the world number one recovered with three birdies on the back nine to finish on one-under-par.

Tiger Woods fired a three-under 69 while three-times champion Phil Mickelson made a slow start to his season with a level-par 72.

The tournament is played over two courses, one round at the easier North course and three on the more difficult South.

The difference in difficulty reflected on the leaderboard with most of the top scores coming on the North layout.

Els, who has finished second and third in his opening two events of the season, continued his impressive form with 65 on the North course.

The South African, who shot a final round course record- equalling eight-under 62 at the Sony Open last week to finish second behind Singh, got his round off to a spectacular start with five consecutive birdies after an opening par.

"I think I made a couple of mistakes but seven-under is a good start," Els said. "I had chances to win both tournaments and finishing the way I did last week was quite a thrill.

"Second and third to start ... not bad."

World number two Woods, who took last week off after opening his season at the winner's-only Mercedes championships, had an uneven start to his round with a pair of bogeys and birdies on his front nine.

But Woods, winner of this event in 1999 and 2003, finished strongly with three birdies on the back nine to card a three-under 69.

Playing on the South course, Mickelson opened smartly with a birdie on the first hole.

But the U.S. Masters champion was unable to build on the early momentum dropping shots at six and 13 before getting even with a birdie at 17.

The only player to skip the Mercedes Championships, Mickelson chose instead to open his campaign at the event he won in 1993, 2000 and 2001.

Defending champion John Daly, who triumphed here in a playoff to capture his first event in nine years, opened his defence with an even-par 72.

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